A Letter from our CEO
Over the past three years, Elmseed has been sprinting forward and making great strides to serve both our clients and community better. In 2012, we met with 65 unique consulting clients to work on projects such as website and menu design, bookkeeping management, and catering strategies. Of 45 loan applications submitted, we ultimately approved 8 to expand a Caribbean spices business and start a digital media company, among many others.
Over the past three months of 2013, we have already approved three loan applications to expand a multimedia studio, start a retail boutique, and launch a Hispanic food truck. Our Spanish and English Entrepreneurship Development Courses are in full swing. The more clients we serve, the more we see how great the need is in the community. Speaking to numerous community partners and leaders in the nonprofit, trade, and public sectors, we have realized that there are still neighborhoods throughout New Haven that don’t have the opportunities Elmseed could provide. Dozens of existing business owners are struggling to grow and still more people are unemployed or underemployed because they don’t have access to the financing and support that would allow them to start a business best utilizing their skills.
This year, we hope to target those neighborhoods and entrepreneurs more strategically. Over the past few years, we have refined our loan process and can now complete applications in an incredibly timely manner. Our staff is also larger than ever, making our organization well poised to work with many more clients. Specifically, we would like to expand our outreach in Fair Haven and further develop the credit-building loan product that we piloted last year. Successfully integrating the credit building loan product will bring us closer to our mission of incorporating unbanked entrepreneurs in to the traditional system and having long-term benefits in the lives of our clients.
We hope that you will consider supporting us in our endeavors. Many new projects have been keeping us busy and we see so much potential in New Haven. We are very excited to see that the city and the state have developed similar visions to support entrepreneurship and small businesses as part of a long-term economic growth strategy. We hope that we can work together under this greater vision to really improve New Haven’s businesses.
Sincerely,
Jungwon Byun
Chief Executive Officer
Learn More about Elmseed: Our 2011 Prospectus